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Parasport is a joint initiative between the British Paralympic Association (BPA) and the professional services firm Deloitte. The project will improve how talented sports people at community level are identified and supported, with the aim of increasing participation levels in competitive sporting events.

The funding will provide individual bursaries to talented and high-potential athletes, through a partnership with SportsAid, and establish a new Disability Sports Institute known as Parasport run by the BPA.

Deloitte announced plans to commit £1.7 million to support and develop disability sports in the UK between now and 2012

Phil Lane, Chief Executive of the BPA said: “At grass roots level there is a need to create opportunities for those embarking on their first steps to sporting achievement, we also need to help those with talent who want to progress to a higher level of performance. Deloitte’s investment will enable us to do just that”.

Why is this needed?

The inspiration for the modern Olympic movement - Baron Pierre de Coubertin - was quoted in 1824 as saying:

"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

Paralympians are living examples of people who have triumphed over adversity and who have indeed fought well. Few people can fail to be moved to see an athlete with missing limbs sprinting faster than the vast majority of us have ever moved! It is to this ideal that young disabled people and not so young disabled people should be guided.

Thus the concept of a Parasport is to create a sports academy for disabled athletes in an attempt to bring people into disabled sport who might otherwise be excluded and to give them the opportunity to ‘fight well’.

Sport for all!

Whilst the project is been driven by the body responsible for the ‘elite’ end of disability sport it is important to mention that the Parasport project is open to all abilities not just the stars of the future. Put simply the aim for this project is to reach out to all disabled people who want to play sport, at whatever standard, and make sure they get to play!